RURAL STUDIO: AUBURN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

GREENSBORO BOYS & GIRLS CLUB | PHASE 1

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RURAL STUDIOAuburn University Rural Studio began in 1993 as a com-ponent of its School of Architecture. The Rural Studio campus is located in Newbern, Alabama, ten miles south of Greensboro, Alabama. For the last two decades, Rural Studio has enabled small, supervised teams of students to design and build community projects and housing across West Alabama.

The program was founded by Samuel Mockbee and Dennis K. Ruth, and is now in its nineteenth year. The current director, Andrew Freear, has built upon the original mis-sion of the program by shifting the Studio’s focus toward community projects. A legacy of unique projects has helped develop students’ social conscience by providing them with first-hand knowledge of the necessary social, cultural, and technological concepts of designing and building within the framework of a community.

Rural Studio has designed and built over one hundred structures in West Alabama and has educated more than five hundred architecture students in a service learning model that has received both national and international attention.

The legacy that Rural Studio has created is also one of building knowledge. Previous projects serve as examples of

WHO ARE WE?

not only what has been accomplished, but also the knowl-edge of how they were accomplished.

Many projects completed by Rural Studio have a strong sense of sustainability: often materials are donated or come from left-overs of manufacturers. The use of these materi-als combined with the creativity of the students pushes the donations to places never imagined before.

38448 AL Highway 61 | Newbern, AL | 36765 |grc.bgc@gmail.com | www.ruralstudio.org | grc.ruralstudioblogs.org

Architectural Record magazine cover, Lions Park Playscape, March 2012

Victoria & Albert Mesum 1:1 ExhibitionLondon, England, Summer 2010

Metropolis Magazine cover,20K House XII, July/August 2009

Antioch Baptist Church

Safe House Black History Museum Hale County Animal Shelter

Newbern Fire Station

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WHO ARE THE CLIENTS?

GREENSBORO BOYS & GIRLS CLUB AND GREENSBORO RECREATION CENTERThe Greensboro Boys & Girls Club started when local citizens recognized a need for after-school activities. Many children were left unsupervised at home or in the streets. The club currently operates in two rooms of the newly operational Greensboro Recreation Center, a re-purposed National Guard Armory.

Club programs and services promote and enhance the de-velopment of boys and girls by instilling a sense of compe-tence, usefulness, belonging, and influence.The club offers tutoring and homework help which pro-vides children with one-on-one attention. The club also provides a recreation time which teaches life skills such as patience, sharing, and sportsmanship. Free play also encour-ages physical activity for kids.

One of the most rewarding aspects of getting to work on this project has been being able to volunteer at the club on a weekly basis. We, the student design team, have been there since the club opened and have seen the club grow to fifty kids. The club goal is to reach one hundred daily members.

In order to accommodate the growth and development of both organizations, we are proposing a new facility for the Boys & Girls Club. This will allow both the GRC and BGC to operate more efficiently and better serve their individual uses. The new Boys and Girls Club facility will be com-pleted in two phases. The first phase will provide a learning center accompanied by administrative spaces. The second phase will complete the building with a recreation room and multipurpose activity space.

58448 AL Highway 61 | Newbern, AL | 36765 |grc.bgc@gmail.com | www.ruralstudio.org | grc.ruralstudioblogs.org

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WHAT ARE WE DOING?

BOYS & GIRLS CLUB AND COURTYARD Phase 1 of the Greensboro Boys & Girls Club will provide the city of Greensboro with a 2,700 square foot building. This building will allow for the organization to continue to grow and serve its 80 registered members and 40 daily attendees. The building will serve as the learning center for the club and will consist of a classroom, male and female restrooms, computer lab, office, and snack area. In addition to its primary purpose as a learning center, the Boys & Girls Club will also serve as a large meeting space for the City of Greensboro.

Phase 1 of the Boys and Girls Club will be constructed with light-weight wood frame construction in the iconic shape of a house. The exterior of the building will be clad primarily with corrugated metal with some wood siding. The interior walls will be made of OSB as the finish material.

78448 AL Highway 61 | Newbern, AL | 36765 |grc.bgc@gmail.com | www.ruralstudio.org | grc.ruralstudioblogs.org

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O�ce142- sqft

Snackroom351- sqft

Entry331- sqft

Connector1100- sqft

Classroom1,117- sqft

ComputerLab

221- sqft

Storage92- sqft

Storage96- sqft

STORAGE

COMPUTER LAB

CLASSROOM

RESTROOMS

PORCH (5’ DEEP)

MAIN ENTRY

OFFICE

SNACK ROOM

COVERED WALKWAY (3’ DEEP)

STORAGE

COVERED RECREATIONAL SPACE

Opposite pageTop: perspective looking northBottom: perspective looking south into snack room

Previous pageTop: approach/entry perspectiveBottom: perspective looking south through classroom

98448 AL Highway 61 | Newbern, AL | 36765 |grc.bgc@gmail.com | www.ruralstudio.org | grc.ruralstudioblogs.org

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118448 AL Highway 61 | Newbern, AL | 36765 |grc.bgc@gmail.com | www.ruralstudio.org | grc.ruralstudioblogs.org

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HOW CAN YOU HELP?BE A PART OF OUR TEAM!Funding for Rural Studio projects has been accomplished over the years through grant writing and charitable giving, and without people like you, these projects would not have been possible. Any material donations and/or monetary contributions would be greatly appreciated. We thank you for any gift you’d be willing to contribute!

Attached is a gift-in-kind form, which will aid in the pro-cess of documentation for tax exemption.

138448 AL Highway 61 | Newbern, AL | 36765 |grc.bgc@gmail.com | www.ruralstudio.org | grc.ruralstudioblogs.org